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Photo 101: Day 2 assignment: Street and establishing shots.

Day 2: I decided not to use my photo library for this assignment and took a brief step out into the street during my lunch hour to find a shot. Probably one I wouldn’t use again, but time was short.

Privacy laws here are strict, so photographing people and posting on social media is a no-no without their agreement. Penalties are high, so sadly no human interaction in my photo, I need to keep working!

Therefore, my idea was a road/building shot using a building as a central focus. Today is a grey, overcast day here with rain forecast (Yippee!! it does happen occasionally) and it’s hard to make the scene look good, so I thought I’d play a little with the result.

Shot using iPhone 6.

Original: There’s a lot going on here, traffic, metro train to the left, all the buildings and palm trees drawing the eye down Sheik Zayed road, it’s a busy picture but seems a bit dull…

1) Original photo…

Original plus Snapseed lens blur filter: I think this version looks better….

2) Filter applied…

A selection of different edits using filters and cropping: Hmm, not sure about any of these…

Thank you Poshbirdy for commenting, it’s really helpful to have interaction … Interesting, originally this was my preferred choice, then I re-did it without the “drama” filter and just with the lens blur filter and made No2 as my choice, but it took me a while to choose.I tend to like portraying Dubai architecture in an OTT fashion as it is all a bit surreal!

Thanks Kimberley for taking the time to comment and like. The privacy law has been in existence since 2012, however, several incidents in the last 12 months have highlighted the misuse of posting on social media and the law is now more likely to be enforced if a complaint is made. There are understandable reasons for the law, blackmail, abuse and so on, but living here on a visa, it’s as well to take note and not offend. After all, it’s a law protecting people from potential abuse, and I don’t have any issue with that, it’s good to feel secure in that way. I’m not sure I would be a very interesting subject, but for protecting children in the cyber world, it’s very good to see this protection which hopefully would limit exploitation, the penalties are high. With regards to tourist photographs, it’s probably best to avoid uploading anything that could be considered an invasion of privacy to any form of social media whilst in the region, unless permission is granted and can be proven. Note my careful wording! This is an interesting link that gives information http://gulfnews.com/news/uae/society/understanding-uae-s-cybercrime-law-and-penalties-1.1564565

Cool! Fun to see the scene with the various filters. When I see them large, I like the black and white one best, followed by #6, which almost let me feel a breeze on my face and catch a scent of coming rain.

Glad you commented, it’s great to see what is liked by different folks. #6 uses Snapseed HDR, which I love using on Dubai buildings, they are so fanciful and extravagant that a filter that enhances the effect adds to the surrealism of the surroundings.Check out my Instagram, a lot of experimenting with filters and amazing buildings.